Just In Time Training
by Phil Lindauer
Medium Options and Proposed Systems
Applications in Oilfield Service Industry
Managing the paradigm shift to a Just In Time distance training system
Just In Time Training Web Pages
Measuring Effectiveness: Pilot Program Results
Three levels of just in time training should be implemented in our organization. The first is in place, that being non-tutored web page computer based training. Secondary asymmetric instruction may be used with this method via e-mail. The second level is web based presentations given to multiple site audiences. These would be conducted using a conference call and web page manipulation. The third just in time training would use Timbuctu screen duplication for individual or group instruction on one computer. Each one of these has been implemented and tested successfully with technology in place. No additional costs would be incurred with world wide implementation. A presentation was provided to an individual in South Africa, demonstrating the international potential of the system. Large cost and efficiency gains could be realized by implementing just in time training. The savings on this small scale pilot program alone were several thousand dollars.
Implementation should expand by creating a schedule for courses to be delivered and names of individuals with some time budgeted for just in time training. Operations centers could now utilize lulls in business to do training, where in the past there was no money to spend on travel and lodging when revenue dropped. Regulatory training could be done at the field location via distance learning, with testing monitored by local management. This would ease scheduling of mandated training during active field times.
The proposed system is so simple, experts could be easily trained in the delivery of the classes. The web page course design would be constructed with their input by web designers. This would allow use of the best possible training resources without pulling them from their present key positions. Transition to a just in time training system for oilfield services could be accomplished on a course by course basis, causing the least amount of disruption and initial staffing specific to re-design of distance education classes.
Finally, a short distance course should be designed to sell the benefits from personal improvement through just in time training. This brief segment would be aimed at increasing the motivation of everyone in the organization to utilize the courses made available. It will be a cost effective and easy to attend class that will help break the paradigm of standard classroom and textbook learning.
One of the great challenges in any form of educational system is optimizing effectiveness. The main issue hindering the measurement process to achieve this is time from learning to utilization of learning. Although level one and two measurements are made in the form of post class surveys and final exams, surveys are seldom done to gauge how effective the system is in improving performance of work related tasks. With the advent of easy access to the world wide web and computer linking, it is now possible to schedule training just in time for it’s utilization.
Many multiple facility companies have access to the world wide web, therefore have the technology in place to implement this system immediately. In implementing this program, experts in all fields may be pooled as training talent, as they would not be required to leave their present jobs and travel to a training facility. Courses would be designed to optimize distance education requirements. The resulting system would be more effective, shortening time between training and use of training. Measurements could be taken in a timely manner to verify and optimize systems. Cost of travel and lodging would be reduced greatly, and a much wider audience would be able to take advantage of training systems.
Just in time training may be a new term but it is not a new concept. On the job training is often carried out by having an instructor in direct contact with the trainee while they are performing the job related task. The training occurs as a part of completion of the task. Managers or associates may prepare individuals for a task directly before it is performed. For example, a Sales Manager briefing an associate prior to an important sales call, or a Service Manager providing instruction on running a service to an engineer that has not provide this service in the past.
These forms of just in time training are beneficial for several reasons.
This desire to optimize training systems with a just in time approach can be seen today in the use of personal trainers for physical fitness, mentors in industry, and special classes to help pass standardized exams in education. Having a personal coach or tutor to assist in preparation for tasks just prior to their execution is a very efficient and beneficial method of education. There is now even a "strategic coach" service that will help you nurture your creativity if you are an entrepreneur. This is explained in a mini lecture in The Graduate School of America’s Cybrary: http://www.tgsa.edu/online/cybrary/coach.html
Although this efficient and desirable method of training has a long history and is built into many of today’s training agendas, it has several downsides.
By utilizing a distance education format for just in time training, the advantages of the system would remain, and the disadvantages would be eliminated. With the plummeting cost of personal computer hardware, and the relatively low cost of access to the world wide web, just about any individual would have access to this training. As many organizations are moving to a networked computer operation for business systems, availability of an internet or intranet is in place.
A personal tutor or expert in one particular field would be available from any point on the globe that has internet access. In essence, they could be in many places at once, making it logistically possible to perform just in time training.
Finally, in order to maintain efficiency and benefit from immediate feedback, the programs would be built for distance education optimization, therefore specifically defined. Continuous improvement would be possible by re-defining the training materials. With the possibility for immediate feedback, optimization would occur much more rapidly than with traditional systems.
Medium Options and Proposed Systems
There are a wide variety of medium options for distance education programs available today. Within our organization just about every option is available, from training centers around the globe, to computer networks and video conferencing centers. For well site data transmission, a satellite system is in place. A world wide intranet is maintained, with available links outside the firewall to the internet. Three major criteria were set for selection of the delivery medium.
1. Minimal training requirements for instructors. If the program is to use true experts in a given field, they must not need to devote a large amount of time to learning a new system.
2. Hardware and Software easy availability. The system must require only a computer with access to the world wide web, a phone on a separate line from the computer, and e-mail.
3. Minimal scheduling requirements. No special rooms or equipment that require scheduling should be designed as a integral tool for the system.
Using these criteria as requirements, two basic systems were utilized. The first system simply uses a posted web page and a phone. Training pages are designed for specific training needs. The learner receives an e-mail with the url of the training site, and logs on to the web site. With most e-mail applications, this is accomplished simply by double clicking on the url in the e-mail. The learner then phones the instructor. The instructor guides the course through the web site, having the learners change pages by telling them where to click next on the page. The number of students may be increased in multiple learner locations by using a conference call on the instructor side. The number of students in a single location may be increased by using a speaker phone and several seats around one computer screen. This link shows how it works with photographs of instructor and learners.
An ultra low-tech option to the first system is available if the learner only has one phone line in. The web pages can be downloaded, along with any pictures used. If only a few pages are to be used, several web browser applications may be opened, and one page open on each browser. For example, several netscape programs started, and each page of the presentation made into an icon until it is to be used. This method may also be used if the download speeds in a certain area are too slow to hold a reasonably paced class.
The second system is slightly more complex, using the screen duplication software Timbuktu. This software may be sent as an e-mail attachment in zip format to be loaded on the learner or instructor computer system. Of course, it can also be purchased direct and loaded onto a system. More detailed instructions are available on a separate page.
When the student requires instruction, they phone the instructor and open a window that is a duplication of the instructor’s screen. The instructor then can use any program on their computer as instruction aids. The major advantage of this system is the great versatility available for instruction software. It provides the capability to demonstrate new software systems, presentations with specific software, and graphics with any program on the instructor’s host machine. The downside of this system is only one primary location can be easily used at the learner site.
Both systems may augment real time symmetric learning with e-mail question and answer sessions providing asymmetric learning opportunities.
A slight variation on the second method may be used to present to larger audiences. This involves one other piece of equipment, a computer screen projector. The remote site connects their computer to a computer screen projector which in turn projects the screen onto a wall or projector screen. There are several brands of these machines with different features, and as with computer technology in general the costs of these are dropping and the features improving at a fairly rapid pace. A speaker phone is used, and if necessary, amplified for larger rooms. This method has been successfully used to deliver a presentation to Canada from an office in Texas. The feedback from this effort was very encouraging.
The following feasibility discussion is specific to implementing a company wide Just In Time Training system in the organization to which I belong. This is a list taken from a generic feasibility study designed by a Graduate School of America forum of students. Although any derivative of this list may be useful, the first point and subsequent discussion is universal. Four questions were sited to review feasibility.
1. Will management support widespread implementation of this project?
2. Will this program fit within the culture of my organization?
3. Can staffing and scheduling be accomplished?
4. Technology and Infrastructure?
Will management support widespread implementation of this project? Management buy-in is an essential ingredient in any system. If the key manager says the system will be successful, and makes a decision to maintain this belief, the system will be successful. If initially they agree to the project but only agree to weigh the results to determine success, the outcome will be less certain. In any project, the success rests on the commitment from all levels of management to remain consistent, even during the difficult stages. A just in time system can easily be used by a few to gain tremendous efficiency gains and cost savings, and will continue to do so on a small scale. The large gains and process improvements will be a straight function of management commitment.
Will this program fit within the culture of my organization? This type of program fits with our organization very well as far as demographic, educational goals, expectations of participants and especially well with the culture of oilfield services. Our operation is world wide, multi cultured, and provides an extremely high autonomy throughout the company. The challenge in this regard will be managing the paradigm shift between training either on the job or in traditional learning centers to distance learning. A separate section of this project is devoted to this topic.
A brief statement on training for our organization is available at the public web site: http://www.slb.com/recr/library/wireline/brochure/training.html
A brief summary of a typical day at work for a field engineer is located at the public web site: http://www.slb.com/recr/library/wireline/brochure/challenging.html
Can staffing and scheduling be accomplished? We presently have a team that is providing web based training pages. They have an outside firm doing the page design. There are also many individuals who have hosted pages. This is in addition to two training centers in the US and one in Canada. Many field locations have designated trainers for specific tasks. The experts in various topics are also available, but are rarely used for training purposes. With the system outlined, these expert resources may now be tapped for training without leaving their core business. This will actually reduce staffing needs at the learning centers. Scheduling in the pure virtual classroom will be determined entirely by the expert instructors, and may be scheduled for large groups or impromptu if convenient. Minimal time for interactive sessions will be budgeted by the experts, with opportunity for continued question fielding via e-mail in an asymmetric learning process.
Technology and Infrastructure? With intranet and world wide web internet availability to every engineer and manager, the technology and infrastructure are in place. E-mail is commonly used and Netscape web browser is available on every computer.
Managing the Paradigm shift to a Just in Time distance training system
A common challenge with training systems in place is to inspire their use. In our program, a new engineer is self motivated to complete the point system required to "graduate" to General Field Engineer. Salary increase and career launching are sufficient motivation to attain the required knowledge levels. Beyond this point, training becomes an entirely self motivated issue, and unfortunately also a function of the operation center financial status. There is the exception of mandatory regulatory training, which is usually regarded as a cost/scheduling challenge for location management and human resources alike. Although regulatory training will be easier and more cost effective, there will still be a need to motivate those beyond General Field Engineer training to use the available just in time training, as it will be a cultural paradigm shift in our organization.
The paradigm of traditional classes will be a challenge to break.
To help with this change, a short course should be designed as a lead in to distance classes, or a standalone short class. It will revolve around the seventh habit proposed by Steven Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, that of sharpening the saw. One version of the story revolves around two people cutting logs. The first cut all day, non stop without taking a break. The second took time each hour to get away from the job of cutting. At the end of the day, their work was compared, and the person that took the breaks had a much larger amount of wood cut. The first was confused, and asked how this could possibly be, as he had worked straight through and the other had stopped throughout the day. The first asked the second how this could have happened, and her answer was this. During the breaks each hour, she had stopped to sharpen the saw.
It is critical to have everyone understand that for themselves and for the company, continuous education is essential for success. The saw must continuously be sharpened, or we will find ourselves behind in business, technology, and personal fulfillment.
Applications in Oilfield Service Industry
Even miles from land, Field Engineers can communicate digitally to land based webs via satellite.
There are many training situations in any industrial setting. The following section breaks these into 4 general categories.
1. Job Task Related (need to know).
2. Non Job Related Task (career improving nice to know).
3. Regulatory (must know).
4. Hands on Training required.
Job Task Related. The job task related area will focus on performing a generic service at a drilling well site. The non job task related will deal with a soft skill, and the regulatory with a typical government or company mandated course.
Standardized Service Training-A web blueprint for learning.
A common learning situation within our organization is to train for the ability to run a new service at the well site. As technology evolves, there are more new services available, and through the career of the field engineer it is not uncommon for over 20 services to be learned. By standardizing tool (service) specific distance education systems, engineers will become more confident using any new service hardware. All new tool introductions should come with these standardized web pages when the service is released from engineering.
Using these standard pages for distance education and local hands on training, new engineers will be able to break out (make field jobs on their own without supervision) sooner, and seasoned engineers will be able to pick up new services more quickly and better assure quality products. With access to the network from a drilling site, just in time training may be accomplished just prior to and even during the service. In earlier training documents known as Field Operations Manuals (FOM’s), a standard format was used. As tools became more complex and came from different engineering centers, this practice was replaced by each tool designer’s idea of what information should be presented. The standard must be re-instituted in the form of web page information, in the following format:
Section 1: Safety discussion then a quick operations section complete with critical data acquisition parameters.
Section 2: Theory of measurement complete with diagrams if necessary
Section 3: Hardware. Pictures, tool acronyms, measure points and maintenance instructions. Basis troubleshooting would be covered in this section.
Section 4: Interpretation, complete with good data and bad data examples. Also name and e-mail of product quality expert should be maintained.
With a standard format, the engineers will learn how to learn a new service early in their career, then can focus on performing the service and delivering quality products. This Just In Time web based standardized distance program will greatly enhance the engineer’s ability meet client expectations.
Non Job Related Tasks. Many advanced seminar type programs are available for General Field Engineer level and above. Most of the curriculum of these courses would lend themselves to a distance program as it is primarily lecture from slides or video tapes. Even brainstorming sessions and discussion groups could be easily accomplished in an e-mail chat type system. This being said, a major benefit of these schools is meeting peers in the organization and developing relationships within the organization but outside the primary functional location. For this reason, it is recommended were possible many of these type courses remain a travel and meet seminar type system, augmented by a distance system for pre-class and post-class learning. The seminar time could then be shortened and focused on interactive tasks aimed at information sharing and process improvement.
Regulatory classes. This is perhaps one of the largest opportunities in our industry for a distance system. Training that is mandatory and/or regulated by law is more difficult to manage even than need to know type training. If an individual does not know a particular service and there is no time to train, the decision is made to use a substitute individual or to give the client the option of a different service. With regulatory training, there are no such options. To be able to deliver quality, regulatory approved, Just in Time distance safety training alone will provide a major human resources management benefit. We presently have a new employee safety training course that requires 6 days of intensive review at a learning center. A distance course as described covering this material could either shorten or eliminate the need for the traditional classroom course, saving on travel and lodging and easing scheduling issues for busy locations.
Hands on classes. For classes that require hands on skills, local experts will be called upon to demonstrate and check for competence. When local expertise is not available, training videos may be used. If these are not available, then a traveling instructor or a more advanced system must be designed for video transmission and special local arrangements for video and workshops. This will not be covered in this project.
Just In Time Training Web Pages
The two web pages linked below were constructed and used for both Timbuctu and web only distance training for completion of this project. Initially the desire was to measure effectiveness of the distance training in completing tasks outlined on the page. It has become evident that this is more a function of management commitment to the project and location personnel loading than of the education system. It can be stated that the learners have bookmarked the web pages and know how to review the training to perform the tasks or assure the issues covered conform to what is expected. It can also be said that from reviews conducted, when the work was completed following the distance training, it did conform to expectations laid out in the training pages.
Two projects requiring large scale training initiatives this year are SAP Plant Maintenance software training and Pressure Control Equipment Audit training. These pages do not contain any confidential material, but some do have links to information that is confidential. These links are marked "confidential" and will provide the option of returning to the previous page. Much of the information and training provided require previous knowledge of the industry and/or a basic knowledge of SAP software. For the purpose of the Distance Education course completion, it is meant only to demonstrate the functionality of the system.
A typical session would begin with a request for assistance, an e-mail to the learner/learners with the intranet web page address, and a phone call from the learners to the instructor when the web page was opened.
Pressure Control Equipment Just In Time Training for Technical Audits
SAP software Just In Time Training for the Plant Maintenance Module
Measuring Effectiveness: Pilot Program Results
As stated earlier, the quantity of work done will not be impacted by a distance program, but instead the quality of the work that is performed. Four major distance pilot classes were presented in the 12 week span of this project.
First Session: Sugar Land Texas to Airdrie, Canada. The method used was screen duplication of an instructor’s computer in Texas using Timbucktu software. Fifteen Quality Coaches, Location Managers and Regional Technical Manager were gathered at a company learning facility. A week earlier it was suggested the meeting be attended to discuss the Plant Maintenance program and Pressure Re-Certification initiative. Rather than fly to Canada for the day’s presentation, the Regional Technical Manager agreed to a distance session, and with less than 10 minutes instruction had set up the screen duplication software and tested the system. The day of the meeting, his computer was projected on a screen at the meeting, and his computer was a displaying the screen in Sugar Land. A speaker phone in Canada was placed in the center of the room, and as the presentation progressed, there were questions asked and answered. Four software packages were used for the presentation, the main outline was covered with a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation, SAP software was loaded and demonstrated for specific software tasks, Netscape was used as a web browser to display just in time training web pages built for the specific topics, and eudora was used to send url’s of the pages covered. Several issues with the proposed systems were resolved, and feedback was very positive. When the engineers returned to their field locations, there were very few calls for review, as the data was all at their fingertips on the intranet. Some suggestions for improvement were implemented, and the improvement process began immediately as the as the training was completed just in time for its use. The trip to Canada would have taken a minimum of 2 days and on short notice would have cost about $2,000. As it turned out, it took only 2 hours of engineering time and an hour long distance call.
Second Session: Sugar Land Texas to Liberal Kansas. A new Location Manager requested a visit specifically to review the pressure control initiative. Rather than travel to Kansas, a distance session was held with the manager, and in about 40 minutes the complete technical audit was covered, and the Pressure Control Guidelines on the web reviewed. The method used was sending the url of the web site via e-mail, and requesting the manager to call when the web page was connected. While the presentation ran, the instructor gave direction on where to click, and the learner followed by clicking the appropriate links. This was satisfactory to understand the policy, and the manager took the web page and subsequently covered it with his local employees. The trip saved several hundred dollars and once again, many man hours.
Third Session: Sugar Land to Casper, Wyoming. A Health Safety and Environment group scheduled a meeting in Casper and requested a presentation on the Pressure Control Initiative that was launched in 1997. For this presentation, the Timbucktu screen duplication was planned. The meeting was at a hotel, and two phones were arranged so one could be used for the speaker phone and the other the network connection. Due to the poor quality connection on the data side, it was decided a downloaded version of the web sites would be used on the Casper computer. This image was projected once again on a screen in the hotel, and the speaker phone set up in the center of the room. The moderator clicked through the web pages in Casper, as the instructor directed through the discussion on the live intranet. The presentation was totally interactive with the participants, and several questions were fielded and issues discussed. Once again, when the hour presentation was concluded, the phone call was terminated and both parties returned to their agendas. Once again, all travel and lodging expenses were saved, as well as extensive time for travel.
Fourth Session: Sugar Land to South Africa. A presentation was prepared and presented to Dr. Stan Trollip to demonstrate the functionality of the system. Due to one phone line in, the five "slide" presentation was downloaded from a web following the url being e-mailed. Following the download, the data connection was terminated and at a pre-arranged time, a call was made and the 20 minute presentation delivered. The one picture used was not captured in the download, so further instruction will be added for future presentations of this type. Once again, just in time training results in immediate level 3 evaluation, enabling quick and precise process improvement.
Many additional short presentations were delivered to demonstrate the methodology, and several process improvements in the form of additions to the web pages were made.
The methods selected for the implementation of just in time training were done so with simplicity as the critical factor. As video conferencing becomes available on every computer, and the software necessary to have "virtual meetings" is also universally loaded on ever PC, just in time training will evolve to include these features. As more and more individuals and groups look to the web for education, better data browsers and search engines will connect experts with learners in a more timely fashion, and the next generation will evolve to an even more efficient manner of conducting the learning process.
Steven Covey (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People audiocassette published by Simon & Schuster Sound Ideas
Moore and Kearsley (1976) Distance Education: A Systems View Wadsworth Publishing Company
The World Wide Web
Pictures from Schlumber internally distributed Intercom Magazines